Toss & Catch
- Brand
- YouTube
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- The Zoo At Google
- With
- Jam3
Objective
Super Bowl commercials are the game's own second screen, and every year fans watch them on YouTube before the ads even air on TV. For Super Bowl XLVIII, YouTube built out its annual Ad Blitz hub — now in its sixth year — to hold that audience on YouTube itself: catch the teaser traffic in January, keep viewers on the site through the game, and give brands a public vote once it's over.
Solution
The visitor lands on a single hub and starts browsing: teaser clips and full Super Bowl commercials, Fox Sports highlights, and custom videos from YouTube creators, all playable on desktop, tablet or phone. Alongside the video library sits Toss & Catch — the visitor starts a challenge and invites up to three friends, then throws a virtual football across their screens in real time, in any mix of phones and desktops, batting it back and forth as a quick side game between videos. Once the game has aired, the visitor casts a vote for a favourite commercial, adding to a live public scoreboard of the night's ads.
Results
4 million site visits in the first 24 hours, rising to 5.6 million total; 336,000 virtual footballs thrown in Toss & Catch; over 555,000 votes cast for commercials; 2 million+ views of the campaign's pre-roll videos; teaser clips reached 77 million views on YouTube by January 31, 2014 (more than double the prior year), and Super Bowl ads overall reached 212 million+ views on YouTube by the following afternoon.
- 1
The visitor lands on the Ad Blitz hub at adblitz3.withgoogle.com (also youtube.com/adblitz), presented as a chalkboard-style football-plays destination for Super Bowl XLVIII commercials.
- 2
Before kickoff, the visitor watches commercial teasers posted ahead of their TV air date, along with Fox Sports football highlights and custom videos made for Ad Blitz by a roster of YouTube creators.
- 3
Once the Super Bowl ends, voting opens: the visitor picks a favorite from the commercials that aired and can keep voting until 11:59 p.m. ET on February 10, 2014.
- 4
From the same hub the visitor opens 'Toss & Catch', a multi-screen game playable directly on the page, and invites up to three friends to join a session on any mix of desktop, phone, or tablet.
- 5
Players throw a virtual football back and forth between their screens in real time, the ball leaving one device and landing on another's, framed as re-enacting game plays between commercial breaks.
